Edge has published an article detailing PlayStation 4, as described to them by “development sources with working knowledge of both next generation consoles.” The details echo previous reports of a new controller, holiday launch, and 4 gigabytes of RAM (though, it’s said that Sony is pushing for 8 gigabytes to match the next Xbox). Consider it all a rumor, of course. But considering how well everything has been tying together and the upcoming February 20 system reveal, it’s more likely than ever.

Launch

The system will be out in North America and Japan by the holidays, and in Europe by early 2014, according to the report. At its launch, Sony are said to offer a new and improved PlayStation Eye, which will be compatible with the PlayStation Move controller.

Controller

The controller, as suggested in previous rumors, has been redesigned for PlayStation 4, is the same size as a DualShock 3, and has added a small touchpad in place of the existing Select, Start, and PlayStation buttons. The technology is said to be based on PS Vita’s rear touchpad.

A new Share button has also been added. When pressed, it will launch a new feature allowing users to share screenshots and video online. PlayStation 4 is said to always record the last 15 minutes of gameplay, which users can edit and share online.

Specs

PlayStation 4 hardware is “much more PC-like” in its makeup in comparison to PlayStation 3. The system is currently said to boast 4 gigabytes of GDDR5 RAM capable of moving data at 176 gigabytes per second. But considering the next Xbox is rumored to have 8 gigaytes of DDR3 RAM, Edge’s sources claim Sony has told developers it’s also pushing for 8 gigabytes to match them.

Both PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox will have eight-core AMD CPUs clocked at 1.6GHz. Microsoft is using a D3D11.x GPU from an unknown source, and Sony one based on AMD’s R10XX architecture and a ‘Liverpool’ system-on-chip.

According to Edge (I know nothing of specs), the Sony platform should outperform the next Xbox, technologically. One source claims PlayStation 4 is “slightly more powerful” and “very simple to work with.”

Sony has always made little updates to the DualShock, and each iteration is better than the previous. It’s the perfect controller, and it only improves with time. I have reason to be hopeful about the DS4, or whatever they call it!

rockman29

Just add touch functionality.

I trust Sony will do this. They are sensible.

Zackasaur

Yes, please!

It will take a long time before any games can make me get a Wii U (the platform itself is pretty awful, from the hardware, to the controller, to the online functionality and store, to the UI, and to the lack of HDD space).

But a PS4? I’ll get that this holiday if it is indeed available then.

Not excited for the NextBox, given how awful a time I’ve had with the 360 and how few interesting titles I’ve found for the thing. :/

I’m hoping the PS4 has some great connectivity with the PS Vita.

http://kougeru.tumblr.com/ Kou

I’m sure it will have great connectivity to Vita. Wouldnt make sense for it not to lol. But I think you’re underestimating the Wii U hardware, and you can apparently upgrade the Wii U harddrive using any external harddrive. Honestly though, I’ve only filled up my PS3 120 GB ps3 once,and that was because I never deleted any demos and I rented a lot of games that had badly uncompressed patches. Once I deleted my demos and patches of games I didnt play for over a year, I was down to only using 5 GBs.

Zackasaur

Nah, I study hardware architecture, and the Wii U is roughly between the PS3 and 360 in terms of potential output. Plus, I don’t expect Nintendo devs to push the hardware they have, anyway, given their lack of experience with it and prior trends. I also have gone hands-on with the controller and thoroughly hate it. Rayman Origins is my favourite platformer of all time, and I can’t stand to play Legends on the Wii U, based on the demo. I’m going to have to wait and hope for a more pure Legends release on other hardware.

I don’t like getting involved with external hard drives, partially because it’s clutter, and partially because it’s just more expense. It doesn’t suit my entertainment setup. I find it really silly that Nintendo wants to push digital content, yet they don’t give users space for storing digital content. They’re shooting themselves in the foot.

I have an 80GB PS3, and I love my backwards compatibility… But the 80GB does not do well for me at all. I have to delete game data a lot and cannot store anything else at all. I always have to micromanage my HDD when I want to try a new demo. It’s largely because I have a large game library with a lot of PS Store purchases and game installations.

I want Monolith Soft’s new RPG and… Well, I think that’s all I want on Wii U at the moment.I might want Super Namco Bros. if it looks good, but I’m waiting with great curiosity! But I have a tendency to buy every game machine eventually, so I think I’ll own one. I don’t want to pay more than $200 for that old hardware, though, and I want real HDD space.

I know some Nintendo fans will get upset over this, but I often wish they were a large third party, since their hardware and online setups are so poor. They have some good games and some beloved IPs, rehashed or not, so they could still do well and keep up their fanbase.

Zackasaur

Wow, sorry, that turned into a long post. I’m in a really comparative and speculative mood, due to the dawn of the eighth console generation! I always get geeky about new hardware.

http://twitter.com/Zufield Zufield

You could, y’know, just replace the internal HDD. Just saying.

Zackasaur

It’s still an additional expense, and the console is already nowhere near worth the price, even ignoring the poor HDD. I’m going to be waiting quite a while if all goes according to plan.

Hopefully Monolith’s game takes a long time. That’s all I really want.

Maggot_Cakes

Rayman Legends is fantastic… excellent use of the 2nd screen… I study hardware too… It is not between 360 and PS3… might not be much more power than a PS3 but it is definately a much more capable system

http://kougeru.tumblr.com/ Kou

I don’t see a problem with the touch pad as long as the dpad, analog, and main facebuttons are left alone. All I can say about this rumor is if Sony gets 8 GB and MS has 8…then that DDR5 ram will destroy that DDR3 Ram.

Zackasaur

Yeah, seriously. That DDR5 will make a monstrous difference for exclusives. Plus, it should help third parties to get their multiplatform projects running really smoothly on PS4.

Thomas McBrearty

4GB off DDR5 will destory the Xbox’s RAM, let alone 8GB o_O’

rockman29

Exactly.

What they describe makes it sound perfect honestly, just improve, add to what is already there and is proven good.

Maggot_Cakes

No… that’s what eDRAM and eSRAM is for… to make up the bandwidth difference… 360 had 10MB of eDRAM and as a result most games had the same visual appeal and much better framerates because of it… Durango is rumored to have 32MB of eSRAM… which is much faster than GDDR,3, 4 or 5 … cause it’s embedded on the chip itself as sort of an L3 cache… so it caches from ram and the CPU or GPU can draw from it at much faster speeds than DDR3… it will be quite enough to make up the difference I can assure you

http://kougeru.tumblr.com/ Kou

Well all they specified so far here was DDR3 and GDD5, so I can’t comment on eDRAM. And I don’t know if that really was the reason. It always seems to me like it was a porting issue. Every game I’ve played that was made for PS3 first and then ported to 360 looked and ran better on PS3 (FF13) while games made for 360 and ported to PS3 would vary depending on the game. But what you say seems to mostly be valid. And it seems like Sony is mostly waiting to see what the next XBOX will have to try and 1-up it. I’m not all about power though. I’m interested in this because I dont care for a single XBOX exclusive title, but I do enjoy a lot of Sony ones. I probably won’t get a PS4 or a good 2-3 years after release though.

Maggot_Cakes

well yeah that’s true… I just remember hearing that the eDRAM was used for framebuffeing and AA… … reguadless of “statements” that the PS3 was FAR more powerful than the 360 … in reality this little embedded chip helped out a lot… i believe without it … it may not have been able to keep up

Prodigy-X

Yeah I don’t understand why people whining about it. I’m actually not surprised they are changing the controller. I had a feeling the fourth console they came out with they would redesign the controller.

Zohar127

Yeah I’m not expecting a huge redesign but I kind of welcome it. The off-set analog sticks like on the 360 pad are much better than the awkward positioning of the sticks on the Dual Shock.

Zancrow

I have nothing against the touchpad as long as they keep the design.
The PS controller is perfect IMHO.

Leon Kiwi

i find these 2 features to be a bit far fetched
1)”PlayStation 4 will always record the last 15 minutes of your gameplay”
recording feature is pointless for most users, HD video capture consumes quite a bit of resources and not to mention the limited hdd space is going to fill up very fast if they kept recording videos every time we play a game.

2)”developers it is also pushing for 8 gigabytes to match Durango”
Bullshit? the spec of Durango is still pretty much just a rumor. Durango could be using the same 4GB DDR5 for all we know. Also i find it hard to believe that Sony would respond to rumors and change their spec at this late in stage( of course, assuming the Orbis will be using 4GB DDR5 ).

DarthBrian

The limited HDD space isn’t an issue if it’s only recording the last 15 minutes of your most recent gameplay. That’s not going to be 15 minutes per title. They’d just have a set pool of HDD space for that 15 minutes of video.

Zohar127

Yes definitely. It will probably just overwrite whatever you did last while giving you the option of saving it if you so choose. Depending on the quality of the video recording it might not take up much space at all, really.

I think the idea is you just did something awesome in a game so you immediately log out and post the video somewhere.

Leon Kiwi

i dunno if it’s just me, but i don’t think most gamers even care about the video recording feature.

don’t get me wrong tho, it’s a really nice thing to have.

But I just can’t imagine Sony would consider this as a day one Must Have, but rather a feature that’ll be introduced in a firmware update sometime post-launch.

DarthBrian

I can guarantee you, if they add it in post-launch, then no one will care about it.

Zohar127

Agreed. Even if a lot of people don’t care about it, they want to have something to bullet point on the back of the box. Post-launch firmware updates to add functionality that people consider should have been working at time of launch aren’t going over very well. Nintendo had problems with this for the Wii U.

http://xcite79.1up.com Keegs79

Far fetched? No they are not. Games such as Halo and Call of Duty can do and you just have to manage it anyway. I am sure there will be options to disable it if this feature is real.

RAM is not a major issue when changing designs. It shouldn’t effect the overall specs of the machine. The only thing it would effect is the board layout and its not like they are producing these consoles yet.

I argue your points because your being too cynical. Have an open mind.

Zohar127

They might not even have to change the board layout if they can just swap the RAM modules with ones that are of double capacity.

Leon Kiwi

id have to disagree, changing the ram size is not as easy as swapping out the Ram and changing the layouts, as it may also affect software as well as the rest of the hardware components that is optimized to the RAM.
Sony would have to change dev kits sent to the devs as a result, maybe it could even affect the game development, which could lead to delays.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

That may be a problem if they decreased the ram, but increasing the ram shouldn’t affect anything that is optimized for a smaller amount of ram. It would still have enough ram to run. The rumors are that the dev kits already had 8-16 gigs of ram on them to begin with. Increasing the ram would only mean that the first generation of games won’t take advantage of all the extra room they have, but it also means that 2nd and 3rd generation games will be that much more impressive.

Zohar127

Yeah I don’t think it would have a major impact since devs aren’t currently working on final hardware, though I’m sure any amount of last-minute hardware changes will cause plenty of them to start ripping their hair out.

Zohar127

That depends on what kind of information Sony has regarding the next Xbox. It’s very possible they are getting insider leaks and information that aren’t being publicized.

I wouldn’t immediately dismiss the possibility of Sony trying to make a late change to match the numbers of Durango. The general public doesn’t understand that GDDR5 RAM is balls-out faster than DDR3. All they will know is Sony has half the RAM as MS and is therefore worse. Again. (even though PS3 has 512MB of RAM it’s split up and presented a challenge for developers.)

If I’m Sony I’m looking back and wondering how I went from being the undisputed emperor of console gaming to waddling in 3rd place behind the Wii and the 360. Well the big ones that stand out to me are:

– Almost always having the worst performing/buggiest/broken version of any multi-platform game. Skyrim anyone?

– Having a system that is difficult and time consuming to program for, prompting the 360 version to always be the lead platform for development. This is linked to my first point. Having a similar CPU and Matching the quantity of RAM rumored to be on the next Xbox quiets all arguments. They don’t have to qualify their arguments as “yeah we have less RAM, but it’s FASTER!” They can say “Yeah we have the same amount of RAM AND it’s faster.” Sony will know that multi-platform games will be, at the very least, just as good as the Xbox version, and if not, even better.

– Being a year late and overpriced. Sony bet on their popularity in the market to allow them to show up fashionably late to the party wearing the most expensive dress and still get the attention of all the boys. They were wrong, and it cost them dearly. All the boys flocked to the quirky new girl with the crooked glasses. They will not repeat this mistake.

So for me it’s easy to imagine the bosses at SCE demanding a change in production to double the RAM. To them their ultimate fear is 5-7 more years of always playing catch up and second fiddle to Microsoft. Take the hit now and do whatever it takes to make sure your system is both technically superior AND available first.

I think right now being first on the market is INSANELY important to Sony and MS. This generation is floundering, gamers are sick of their current games and systems and dying to get something new. If you can grab the market share first, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.

Mar Mar

Dualshock is the only perfect controller ……. in the world. No, it is a standard that every controller in the world should follow!

Oh dear we will have another PS4 vs next Xbox power comparison. They’re both the same for me, small details? don’t care.

Recording videos? Then I don’t need to buy a video capture device :D

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

Those video capture devices only work with Component output right now. It really would be nice to capture in HD on the console itself. Or get Sony to allow HDMI without HDCP so the capture would work that way.

KurisuMakise

Hmm so touchpad instead of being it essentially making Vita a controller hmm, alright.

http://www.facebook.com/kyosuke.yoshino.9 Kyosuke Yoshino

I hope this time PS4 will start with a decent lineup of japanese games, and jrpg. Sony hopefully did learn from the past mistakes, and won’t let Microsoft take the good games :)

Pyrofrost

No Playstation console has ever launched with a decent line-up of JRPG, or even a good line-up in general. In fact, pretty much every console’s launch line-up is shit.

I do hope they don’t let MS buy good JRPGs out from under them though.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

Consoles in the US don’t generally get JRPGs in any significant number until late in the 2nd year they’re on the market anyway. It just takes too long to A. Develop and B. Localize them compared to other genres of games.

Pyrofrost

Exactly, however I am also talking about launch line-ups across the board. I can’t think of the last console off hand that even had a decent over-all launch line-up. Sony sure as hell never had a decent one on any console, and I say that as a Sony fanboy :p

(Not a fanboy as in an “interweb warrior” though, I just own TONS of products)

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

I know the PS1/2/3 didn’t have great lineups, but the Vita was actually pretty solid for a handheld, certainly better than the 3DS launch.

Pyrofrost

Yeah, the Vita did have a better one than any other Sony console. Though, most were games I personally don’t care for.
The 3DS launch though, was bad. The only thing that could have made it worse is if the console had been terribly flawed.

Skerj

Going to have to disagree with you there (but I don’t downvote), I can’t think of a single launch better than Vita’s since the Dreamcast. It had a solid number of high quality and varied titles.

paperclichepixel

I truly believe Versus is a PS4 Launch.

ShinAsura

I love it when I’m right, those are very close to what I was thinking

Guest

Yeah right xD

DesmaX

I just hope the new dualshock will have a “Screenshot” button (Maybe on it’s back), that would make it perfect.

I mean, there’s games on the PS3 like Legasista that already let you take screenshots by just opening the XMB and pressing “Take Screenshot” on the Photo Tab. But that’s too much work

shogunknight

Do what you want, just let it remain the dualshock as much as possible

http://www.facebook.com/Flaviu.D Flaviu Draghis

europe early 2014 ? really Sony you will delay the console in europe, hope the rumor is fake XD

http://twitter.com/kawaiisza riesza

Things like that happen all the time. The Wii U came out in Japan last for example.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

I hope so too, but for Sony, Europe is the place they don’t have to fight to keep marketshare. Japan they have to fight Nintendo, NA they need to fight MS just to stay relevant. Europe they’re still top dog.

http://www.facebook.com/wtfits.gardner Cat Flames

Don’t believe this one bit the PS4’s 4gb is said to be fast and the Xbox’s 8GB is said to be slow in speed so they are pretty equal the thing is that one uses speed with less and the other greater numbers with less speed.

A new PS Eye will be a waste of money they should focus on 3D/VR.
The PS4..if its much more powerful in graphics than a WiiU it will prob
kill SONY I really doubt this is true.

Time will tell.

http://www.facebook.com/aly.hesham.7 Aly Hesham

I really really want that holiday release :D

AnimusVox

Am I the only one who thinks it’s a bit odd that, if it’s true, this will be out by this year’s end despite having just released the new slim model?

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

Not odd at all. In fact, Sony often releases slim models of old consoles even after the new console comes out. It’s all part of their 10 year lifecycle plan. The PS3 should be produced until 2016 at least. The PS2 actually had a 12 year lifecycle.

Though, remember that it’s not that the console will be their main system for 10 years, just that it will be produced by Sony for 10 years. They go from brand new console to mainstream console to budget console over that timeframe. The last slim PS3 just meant the budget transition was starting early.

AnimusVox

I guess I’m just concerned. I don’t want this launch to flop kinda like PS3 did.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

I mentioned on another site… Sony was too overconfident in a number of areas about the PS3. They knew they had the most raw power, they had the install base, and good relations with the developers, so they didn’t try nearly as hard as they could to get the price down and get the system out early. The developers went to the 360 because it had first mover advantage, and found out that it was easier to develop for that system.

If all these rumors are true, they’re being much more aggressive this time and working to patch things up with developers, while still having the most powerful system… As long as the price is in the $400-500 range, they should be in better shape this time. Just hope they don’t mess it up.

Pyrofrost

EDIT: All I know, is any new features that needs to use the internet, such as this record and share feature, MUST BE A PS+ EXCLUSIVE. Sony needs to give people more incentive to subscribe to their service.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

That would be suicide. They already give people reasons to subscribe to the service… A significant number of games per year for free. I think almost half of the people on my friends list are PS+ subscribers already.

Pyrofrost

Suicide?! I’m afraid that’s gross over-exaggeration.
Offering services you don’t yet have and putting them on PS+ would do no harm at all. In fact, it would increase the user-base. A user-base which I am part of, and is a minority.

http://socia.arkaic.com/b/kazriko Kazriko Redclaw

You said everything but bare bones gaming… I’m sure that would include a lot of things that are currently free. If you only meant “new features” then…

Pyrofrost

That’s what I meant actually, I should really edit that. Thanks!

Zohar127

I think whether you’re right or not Sony is going to be putting a lot of their stuff behind the premium pay wall. Microsoft earned -billions- of dollars from Xbox Live subscriptions over the last several years. That is money that Sony can’t afford to pass up this time around.

http://twitter.com/ChestnutBowl Chestnut Bowl

Touchpad sounds good, but the Share button and constant recording of gameplay are useless features. At least allow users to turn off the recording.

DarthBrian

I’m sure it’ll be an option.

Skerj

Personally I like those features, especially when given to friends you can show how you did something or have better access to recording fights and matches.

PrinceHeir

i actually like the touch controls in place of start and select.

typing would be MUCH MUCH easier for sure.

all i want from PS4 is unlimited creation accounts(like PS3), don’t pull the BS move on Vita where accounts have to reset in order to use a different region account.

REGION FREE Games AND Blu Ray, faster reader speed and a un-sync option for controllers so in case in a tournament they accidentally push the home button.

oh and 3rd party combatible hardware controllers and PS3 BC.

i want my PS3 arcade sticks to work on PS4, Dualshock 3 on PS4 etc.

The Last Guardian and Metal Gear Solid Ground Zero as launch games please!!

that’s all i want sony!

Solomon_Kano

I like how the new controller is sounding. I’ll still keep a Dualshock on hand because I love that controller, but this sounds cool.

PrinceHeir

awesome news!!!!

i actually like the touch controls in place of start and select.

typing would be MUCH MUCH easier for sure.

all i want from PS4 is unlimited creation accounts(like PS3), don’t pull the BS move on Vita where accounts have to reset in order to use a different region account.

REGION FREE Games AND Blu Ray, faster reader speed and a un-sync option for controllers so in case in a tournament they accidentally push the home button.

oh and 3rd party combatible hardware controllers and PS3 BC.

i want my PS3 arcade sticks to work on PS4, Dualshock 3 on PS4 etc.

The Last Guardian and Metal Gear Solid Ground Zero as launch games please!!

that’s all i want sony!

http://twitter.com/RaiuLyn Raiu

So the new DualShock has a touchpad to replace the middle buttons?
That’s not a bad idea at all…. The Start,Select and PS buttons aren’t
essential to the gameplay and it’s not like you constantly need them to
button mash…. Also saves us the button wear-out along the way….

Pushing out 8GB GDDR5 Ram is overkill… Let alone the next Xbox would even dare to challenge the thing technologically ..

fireemblembeast

I hope it has a nice set of launch titles :)

EspadaKiller

HYPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

http://www.facebook.com/MiLk.ChoCo.LeN Hikaru Lighthalzen

hopes they add the capability to play ps3 games too , so people who didnt buy ps3 can play ps3 games there.